In various technological fields, batteries are used as an energy supply. Such technological fields comprise, but are not limited to: automotive applications such as start-up batteries and batteries of electrically powered vehicles, aviation applications, mobile devices, etc.
Each battery may comprise a plurality of battery cells. Further, a plurality of batteries may be electrically connected in series via a power line. A battery stack is formed. By such series connection, a defined voltage may be provided, the voltage amounting to more than ten, more than hundred, two-hundred or five-hundred volts.
Sometimes battery management systems (BMS) are employed. BMSs may comprise one or more devices configured to monitor at least one operation parameter of the battery cells of the batteries. The at least one operation parameter may be indicative of, e.g., a state of charge (SOC) of the battery stack and/or a state of health (SOH) of the battery. A master unit may determine these or corresponding parameters and employ them for battery management. Often, the logic of the BMS resides in the master unit which is configured to control the devices. Control data is exchanged between the master unit and the devices.
In conventional systems, dedicated control signal wiring is provided between the master unit and each device. Sometimes, serial/linear or star-shaped bus systems are employed for the signalling of the control data. This may result in certain drawbacks.
For example, the control signal wiring may require significant space and resources. It may be subject to wear-out and failure. Bus systems may result in spatially dependent heating due to different levels of work load for the various devices, depending on their position in the bus system with respect to the master unit. Further, in particular when employing a serial bus system, the traffic on some parts of the bus system may be comparably high resulting in delays in transmission of the control data. Congestion of the data transmission may result.